Does anybody else own the Furball F-35A decals set?

[Zero77]

Hi,

 

I'm about to paint my F-35A, and i had a closer look to my decals. I noticed a color difference between the kit decals and the Furball decals. I even tried to apply the decals on the real FS36270 in case it was the backing paper which could change the color. But they are actually really different. The kit ones are in a quite neutral grey very slightly on the pinkish side. The Furball ones have a more greenish tint and are a bit darker.

And i think the kit ones are the most accurate in color, though it's not very easy to tell as i'm only comparing with pictures displayed on a screen.

 

So i looked for reviews and pictures of the Furball decals to see if it confirms what i think.

 

I found various colors... Though every reviews say that the color looks good.

 

This one looks very accurate to me (the color should be FS36375 according to the USAF specs) : 

 

 

But mine looks rather like this one (actually not exactly, but you get the idea, they look more blue/green) : 

 

I just wonder if it could be possible that there was several batchs with such a variation in color?

 

 

 

Here are the kit ones besides the Furball ones, on their backing paper (both are print by Cartograph, so i guess the backing paper is the same) : 

 

And here is my test. The torn letters are from the kit decals, and the Norvergian roundel is from Furball. The light grey besides is the MRP FS36375 wich is pretty accurate in my opinion. The magic of the photograph is that on the pictures (at least on the second one) the Furball color looks a better match to the 36375, whereas to the eyeball it's rather the kit ones.

 

 

 

Those greys are getting me crazy !!!!

[Zero77]

Indeed. I guess it's the same for the paint manufacturer, though any paint can be darken or lighten by the user. Not the decals.

[dmthamade]

I remember having this problem a long time ago. Kit versus aftermarket on a F-14. I sprayed my go to paint on a paint hulk, then applied decals, one from each. Finished as usual, and i used the ones that "disappeared". Looking at both on the sheets, none of them looked right, both were real close applied and finished, aftermarket was the closest. I guess alternative is to paint everything.

 

Don

Edited October 15, 2017 by dmthamade

[thierry laurent]

The problem is simple: it is impossible to have extremely thin decals that are not somewhat translucent. This is not a problem with basic colors but with light greys, pink and other 'soft' colors this is always a nightmare. I think the only solution is to release darker decals to get enough contrast and ask the customer to soften the effect with a light over spray of the original camouflage color because you cannot reproduce everything with masks. However I have yet to see a decal producer who has the guts to announce that...!